Caltrans suggests 3-person carpools, tolls

March 29, 2013

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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The transition to southbound 55 freeway from the I-5 HOV lanes were lightly congested on Good Friday morning through Santa Ana. Caltrans is considering requiring three passengers in a car or charging a toll to help ease congestion in Orange County's carpool lanes. KEN STEINHARDT, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Southbound I-5 HOV were lightly congested on Good Friday morning through Santa Ana. Caltrans is considering requiring three passengers in a car or charging a toll to help ease congestion in Orange County's carpool lanes. KEN STEINHARDT, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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The transition to southbound 55 from the I-5 HOV lanes are lightly congested on Good Friday morning through Santa Ana. Caltrans is considering requiring three passengers in a car or charging a toll to help ease congestion in Orange County's carpool lanes. KEN STEINHARDT, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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At about 8:30 a.m. on Dec. 12, 2005, traffic moves slowly on the 57 southbound in Fullerton north of Yorba Linda Blvd. BRUCE CHAMBERS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

The transition to southbound 55 freeway from the I-5 HOV lanes were lightly congested on Good Friday morning through Santa Ana. Caltrans is considering requiring three passengers in a car or charging a toll to help ease congestion in Orange County's carpool lanes. KEN STEINHARDT, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Caltrans' HOV traffic solutions

"Least Effective":

•Increase enforcement

•Increase HOV violation fine

•Prohibit Inherently Low Emission Vehicles

•Provide direct access to HOV lanes and connectors

•Peak period occupancy requirement of 3+

"Most Effective":

•Raise occupancy requirement to 3+

•Raise occupancy to 3+ and convert to High-Occupancy/Toll (HOT) lanes.

•Add second HOV lane.

•Add second HOV lane and convert to HOT

•Add second HOV lane and convert to HOT, and raise occupancy to 3+.

Source: Caltrans.

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Drivers planning to use the carpool lanes on Orange County freeways would have to find two passengers – not just one – or pay a toll under one plan Caltrans is considering to ease congestion in the fast lanes.

That congestion has gotten so bad that the carpool lanes on every one of Orange County's freeways have ceased to function as promised during rush hour, according to a Caltrans presentation to be delivered to an Orange County Transportation Authority committee Monday.

California is under pressure from the federal government, based on a law passed last year, to improve carpool commuting times on such high-traffic freeways. Caltrans officials emphasize that several options are on the table, but a copy of their presentation gives a recommended course: limiting the lanes to three-person carpools and those who pay a toll.

"We're going to be looking at this on a corridor-by-corridor basis," said Cindy Azima, a Caltrans spokeswoman in Orange County. "There is no absolute. It's not all or nothing."

The same discussion is happening throughout the state, but Azima said she does not know how many other freeways have been identified. "We believe similar options and combinations of those options are being explored throughout the state," a statement from Caltrans' Orange County office said.

Only a few miles of carpool lanes in Orange County still meet federal requirements that they move traffic at 45 mph or better even during rush-hour commutes. Those are on a broad stretch of I-5 between Anaheim and the Los Angeles County line, according to the Caltrans presentation. That presentation recommends adding lanes as a long-term solution, "subject to funding availability."

For the short term, though, it lists a three-person occupancy requirement and a switch to so-called "HOT" lanes as the most effective options. A HOT lane would charge a sliding toll for cars with fewer than three people, with higher rates when congestion is bad and lower rates when conditions are clear.

"That would allow the agency to manage traffic on the toll lanes in real time, raising prices if it starts to slow to discourage more cars from coming in."

That could worsen congestion in the free lanes, the presentation notes. Adding an extra free lane at the same time would be "ideal," it says.

Caltrans has the final say over any changes to the carpool lanes. But the OCTA controls much of the transportation funding that likely would be needed for some of the bigger-ticket solutions, such as new lanes. And some of its directors were less than enthusiastic about tolls.

"It's a complete ruse," said Todd Spitzer, an OCTA board member and county supervisor. "They're purposefully kicking people out so they can charge them to get back in."

"I'd just as soon shut down the carpool lanes," said John Moorlach, who also serves on the OCTA board and as a county supervisor.

Orange County would not be the first metropolitan area to raise the occupancy requirements for its carpool lanes and then charge others to get in as well. A heavily traveled stretch of I-85 through Atlanta went to three-person carpools and HOT lanes in 2011.

A traffic mess in the opening days evened out as operators fine-tuned the toll rates, according to Atlanta media reports. The number of monthly trips on the tolled lanes has nearly tripled since then, according to statistics from Georgia's road agency. Most are drivers willing to pay to get out of traffic in the free lanes, not carpoolers, the numbers show.

Florida also increased its carpool occupancy requirements and added tolling to I-95 through Miami, in 2010. The project "considerably improved" traffic, according to an annual report from Florida's transportation department – although expert Robert Poole notes that the state also added free lanes there.

Poole, the director of transportation policy for the libertarian Reason Foundation, has been pushing managed toll lanes since the late 1980s. He said the simplest way to get traffic moving in the carpool lanes is to raise the occupancy requirement – "but that would create empty-lane syndrome."

"The best thing you can do is try to sell that empty space," he said.

A federal law requires all states to identify and fix any carpool-lane segments that no longer meet the 45-mph standard during at least 90 percent of the morning and evening rush-hour periods. States must bring any under-performing lanes into compliance within 180 days or face sanctions, such as a loss of federal funding, according to the law.

Caltrans has not finalized its statewide study of carpool lanes. Azima, the spokeswoman, said she did not know when the agency would submit its final report, which will start that 180-day clock.

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